subject: I've Been Shedding Lots Of Hair And My Regrowth Is Very Thin. What Could Be Causing This? [print this page] I've Been Shedding Lots Of Hair And My Regrowth Is Very Thin. What Could Be Causing This?
The other day, I received an email from a woman who told me that she had been suffering from hairshedding and then thinning for about a year, (which was frustrating enough), but she was most bothered by the fact that her regrowth was coming in "baby fine." She wanted to know what she could do about all three things the shedding, the thinning, and the insufficient regrowth. I'll tell you what I told her in the following article.
Finding The Trigger That Is Causing And Continuing The Hair Loss: The first and most important step in stopping the thinning / shedding is finding out what is causing it. And, in this case, the woman was suffering from CTE (chronic telogen effluvium or shedding that lasts for longer than six months.) This often means that the trigger has not been addressed or keeps reoccurring.
There are some common things to look at when the loss happens to a woman. Examples are medications, changing or lowering hormones, adrenal issues, thyroid problems, inflammation or infections of the scalp, and androgenic alopecia (AGA) or hair loss caused by genetics or excess sebum and DHT.
It can sometimes be difficult to find and then treat this trigger. Sometimes there is more than one. Sometimes, the loss starts as the result of one thing but then the ensuing inflammation and damage to the follicles just feeds the cycle. Still, in order for all this to stop, you should first find and treat the trigger and then treat, soothe, and stimulate the scalp which positively impacts your regrowth.
The Causes Of Compromised Or "Baby Fine" Regrowth: There are a couple of things that can compromise regrowth. But first I have to tell you that according to my research and personal experience, your typical TE or telogen effluvium doesn't affect regrowth. Often typical TE will resolve itself in only a few months and the hair will grow back and fill in so that this shedding is just a distant memory.
If that isn't what happens, you'll need to look at other things. CTE can negatively affect regrowth. But, often what I see in this case is that the hair that starts out looking kind of thin but then the hair will thicken up as the hair becomes longer. However, if your hair is a few inches long and it's the same diameter down the whole length, this usually means that the likelihood of it thickening up is less.
Most commonly, the cause of thin regrowth is DHT or androgens. Some peopleare genetically predisposed to being overly sensitive to these androgens that we all have to some extent. This can happen with no family history at anyage after the late teens(but in women itmost commonly happens in the 30s, 40s, and 50s.)Combating this is a two step process. First, you need to lessen the androgens andDHT that is beingproduced(you can do this internally or topically.) I much prefer tryingtopical methods first because taking medications orherbs can cause your hormones to swing and we all know that this too is a common reason for loss andshedding.
Second, you need to stimulate the scalp so that it's rapidly producing higher quality hair.As weird as this sounds, using a plant analogy often helps people seethis picture. If your hair were a plant, the AGA /androgen process would belikefungus to a rose.In order for the rose to produce healthy flowers and bloomsagain, you need to lessenthefungus or pests (DHT and androgens in this case.) This is thefirst step. The second step is fertilizing the plant to support re bloom. In terms of your hair, the fertilizer isscalp stimulator. There are many ways to accomplish this. Examples are the laser comb, rogaine, herbslikerosemary and lavender, andmany others. Again, Iprefer the natural methods first because many store brand stimulators contain a lot of alcohol that canfeed into the inflammation thatcan also negatively affect your growth.
I usually tell people to treat their hair as thoughtthey have AGA as this is the most likely. And, most often, the treatments for other issues like thyroid and adrenals are very similar anyway (other than treating the trigger.)
Other issues to consider are scalp issues like bacteria, yeast, or inflammation and medical issues like thyroid and adrenal. But, even with these causes, you will still need to lessen the trigger and then stimulate and support the scalp.
How do I know all of this? Because I lived it. In my quest to end my hair loss, I looked at my triggers, my iron, my thyroid, my adrenals, my hormones, and my scalp's health. It was a long, hard, frustrating journey which all but wrecked my self esteem but I finally found something that helped quite a bit. You can reada very personal story at http://stop-hair-loss-in-women.com/
